Recommended hardware and network configuration for server hosting

[Spottswoode]

I have thought about contributing some dedicated servers to the master for a good long while now and recently I've come into contact with somebody who is willing to let me host on his network (40mbps connetion) and I have several machines he'll allow me to use for hosting.
So I have a few questions:
1.) Will I need a machine with a shitload of RAM in order to run servers from multiple games? (e.g. Zandronum and CS:S)
2.)Would it be better to have multiple computers hosting their own servers as opposed to using one machine?
3.) Is there a particular way I should configure the network (meaning switch or hub) to adjust for multiple servers?

[Watermelon]

Sorry I can't answer super specifically but this is what I learned:

Servers without activating sv_disallowbots tends to use 100-150 megs per server. Mods may use more. If you disable bot building nodes it can go down to 60-90 megs approximately. I'd say best to assume 100 megs of ram required per server. No idea how much CS:S would require.

If you plan on running any competitive servers where pretty much *every* millisecond counts, then consider putting the critical reaction time games on specific servers. It's been shown that major clusters who run competitive servers tend to struggle with giving priority to the games that require that instant response to determine the outcome of a game. In the case of generic mods/coop, all on one server is fine.

Check to see if CS:S uses any TCP protocols, there was a research paper that showed running TCP with UDP (zandro uses this) at the same time can invoke latency in the UDP side of things.

Hope that helps

[one_Two]

Ram isn't as important as connection really, surely your second question is a matter of cost, though if it's all going through same internet it wouldn't matter really.

[Spottswoode]

Hmm...that helps a good bit Watermelon. Thanks.

The multiple computers in the second scenario are most likely going to consist of laptops, so power consumption isn't much of an issue. They're all paid for, so I don't have to front anything except his fee for hosting. The machines are fairly new. (Each with about 6 gigs of ram each.) I'm mainly interested to know if it would be better to host that way so I can have multiple machines in case there is a technical problem, but if the connection isn't going to suffer horribly I'll probably use just one Zandronum machine in that scenario.

Edit: Doesn't appear that the source dedicated servers use TCP.